THE SUFFERING OF OUR SAVIOUR

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His heavenly glory before Hisincarnation was incapable of suffering, because He was "over all, Godblessed for ever" (Rom 9:5). But in His incarnation, Christ took toHimself a true body and a human soul, as He was "made of a woman"(Gal 4:4). He remains fully God. But He was no more God only. He was "God…manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim 3:16), and "in him dwelleth all thefullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col2:9). He became the God-Man: fully God, fully man.

His Suffering Prophesied

About 700 years before Christ was born in a manger in Bethlehem,the Prophet Isaiah had prophesied about His birth and life in these words:"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of adry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there isno beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a manof sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces fromhim; he was despised, and we esteemed him not" (Isa 53:2–3). Christ, theMessiah, would be a suffering Servant from the time of His birth. The ApostlePaul echoes this thought: "Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God,thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation,and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedientunto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil 2:5–8).

His Suffering Not Natural

Most of us would think that since Christ became a man, it isnatural that He should suffer. However, if we think further, we realise thatthis is not the case. All the suffering of man can be traced to the Fall ofAdam when God pronounced: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrowshalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shallit bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweatof thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out ofit wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return"(Gen 3:17–19). All men, descending from Adam by natural generation, will suffernot only on account of the fact that Creation has been cursed because of Adam;but also on account of Original Sin—they being imputed with the guilt of Adam(Rom 5:12), and being sinners from the time of their birth (Ps 51:5; Job 14:4).In other words, all ordinary men not only suffer by necessity, but suffer onaccount of sin, they being under the wrath and curse of God, and so made liableto all miseries in this life (see WSC 19). But the Lord Jesus Christ wasborn of a virgin, and was neither imputed with Adam’s sin, nor did He inherit asinful nature. He was "without sin" (Heb 4:15). He was "holy, harmless,undefiled, separate from sinners" (Heb 7:26).

His Suffering From Infancy

Why then should Christ suffer? Most of us know that Christ died topay for the penalty of sin on behalf of His Church (Jn 10:11, 15; 11:50–52; Rom5:6–8; 1 Cor 15:3; 1 Jn 3:16; and etc.). What we often fail to realise is thatthe sufferings of Christ on the Cross or in the events leading up to the Crosscannot be cleanly dichotomised from His sufferings throughout His earthly life.Christ was suffering for our sakes (i.e., vicariously) throughout His life.This suffering culminated at the Cross with His substitutionary atonement forHis Church, and so the Cross is referred to in every account of the sufferingof Christ, but it begins from the time He was born, as Isaiah suggests.

The suffering of Christ for our sakes is an intensifying one. Hebegan to suffer in His infancy, and it increased more and more as He drew nearto the Cross. Though little is known about Christ’s childhood, we can be quitesure that His suffering after He began His public ministry was more thanbefore. And as His popularity increased so did His suffering, as more and moreof the Jews heard Him or heard about Him, hated Him and plotted against Him.The Lord did not mitigate His messages with clever diplomacy which dilutes thetruth. He was the most politically incorrect man. For this, He was hated. Why?"This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and menloved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (Jn 3:19).The more He spoke against sin and exposed hypocrisies, the more enemies Hemade, and the more enraged they became.

His Suffering Intensifying

Soon, death loomed at the horizon, and the Lord began to prepareHis disciples for His death (Mt 16:21; 17:22; 20:18). Soon, the disciples beganto realise it themselves that their Master’s life was in danger, so that whenthe Lord suggested that they go back to Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead,the disciples objected: "Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee;and goest thou thither again?" (Jn 11:8). The Lord admonished them gently.They went, but with a mixture of resignation and loyalty that is best expressedby Thomas’ words: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (Jn11:16).

We can only speculate on how the Lord must have felt in the lastweeks leading up to the Cross. But surely real temptations to turn away fromthe course that would lead Him to the Cross would have assailed Him. For He"was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb4:15b). But as the days towards the Cross grew fewer and fewer, the Lord’sagony in anticipation of the Cross would have grown more and more intense.

Two days before the Lord was betrayed, He told His disciples:"Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son ofman is betrayed to be crucified" (Mt 26:2). Contrary to what some maythink, knowing the exact moment of one’s death is no comforting thought. Thisis especially so in the case of our Lord, who knew all things, He being fully God.He knew the kind of humiliation and pain that He would experience under thehands of the Roman soldiers. He knew that Isaiah 53:5 would be fulfilled inHim: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for ouriniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes weare healed." He knew also that He would be betrayed not only by JudasIscariot, but by His chief Apostle Peter (Mt 26:31–35). Humanly, Christ nodoubt would have dreaded the thought.

But far worst than the physical torment, He knew that He was goingto the Cross as a sinner in the sight of God—not for His own sin, but for thesin of His Church throughout the ages. He knew that God would lay upon Him theiniquity of us all (Isa 53:6). He knew also that God is of "purer eyesthan to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity" (Hab 1:13). He knewvery well the words of Isaiah: "But your iniquities have separated betweenyou and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear"(Isa 59:2). He knew that as He would be bearing the sin of the world, He wouldexperience something painfully terrible and frightful, which He had neverexperienced before, namely, a diminishing of and finally being devoid of theconsciousness of His own deity and of divine favour.

His Suffering in Gethsemane

This must have been the thought that drove Him to agonising prayerin the garden of Gethsemane. He had taken Peter, James and John with Him to thegarden to pray with Him, but needed to pray alone, for He "began to besorrowful and very heavy" (Mt 26:37). He told His disciples: "My soulis exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me"(Mt 26:38). Going a distance from them, He fell on His face and, being in greatagony, prayed so earnestly that "his sweat was as it were great drops ofblood falling down to the ground" (Lk 22:44). His prayer, which Herepeated three times, was: "Abba, Father, all things are possible untothee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thouwilt" (Mk 14:36). It was a simple prayer, but it revealed the great agonythat our Lord was experiencing. It also revealed that Christ’s consciousness ofHis godhood was beginning to eclipsed by the fearful thought of abandonment onthe Cross. "The weakness of the flesh, which was formerly concealed, showsitself, and the secret feelings are abundantly displayed" (Calvin).

Earlier, the Lord had comforted His disciples with the words:"Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? thewords that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwellethin me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Fatherin me" (Jn 14:10–11a). While Christ has a single self-consciousness, Hehas two natures and two wills: one divine and the other human. His divine willis the same as the will of the Father because He is one in essence with theFather. Throughout His earthly sojourn, up to this point in the garden ofGethsemane, there is a consensus in His human will and divine will, so that Histwo wills are not distinguishable and so His work is the work of the Father.But now, for a moment, in His prayer, we see that His human will isdistinguished from His divine will (which is the same as the will of His Father).Humanly, the Lord was tempted to shrink from the Cross. He overcame thetemptation, of course. None of His affections were accompanied by sin, asCalvin has well stated: "Christ, amidst fear and sadness, was weak withoutany taint of sin; but that all our affections are sinful, because they rise toan extravagant height."

His Suffering Culminated onthe Cross

Christ headed towards the Cross, and we see Him suffering in oneway after another. First, He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot; second, He wasarrested and bounded; third, His disciples forsook Him; fourth, He was triedbefore Annas where He was slapped by one of the officers; fifth, He was triedbefore Caiaphas, at which time Peter denied Him three times; sixth, He wasbrought before the Sanhedrin where false witnesses were brought against Him;seventh, He was tried before Pilate where He was again falsely accused of manythings; eighth, He was tried before Herod Antipas where He was mocked andarrayed in purple; ninth, He was brought before Pilate again and was cruellyscourged with the ‘cat of nine tails’ and unjustly sentenced to crucifixion;tenth, He was stripped, forced to wear the crown of thorns, and mocked andspitted at by a whole band of Roman soldiers; eleventh, He was made to carrythe cross along the viadolorosa until He stumbledunder its weight; and twelve, His hands and feet were nailed to the cross andHe was crucified between two thieves.

Our Lord hung on the cross from the third hour (9 am; Mk 15:25).At the sixth hour a deep darkness enveloped the land for the next three hours(Mk 15:33; Lk 23:44). This spell of darkness must have accentuated the Lord’sagony and fear, for at the ninth hour, He cried out with a loud voice:"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is to say, "My God, my God, whyhast thou forsaken me?" (Mt 27:46). The Lord was bearing the sin of Hispeople. He was accounted a sinner for our sakes. But the thrice holy God is of"purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity" (Hab1:13), and so for a moment it was as if God had turned His face from Christ.For a moment, the God-Man was not conscious that He was God nor conscious ofany divine favour. He cried out: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsakenme?" It was a cry of anguish, not of anger. It was a cry of distress, notof distrust. But it was a cry of infinite suffering nevertheless. He wassuffering infinitely on account of sin not His own.

Many martyrs have been crucified as Christ was, or burned at thestake, and treated in a worst manner, humanly speaking; but yet their soulshave not been so overwhelmed, nor their suffering so intense. Christ sufferedas the God-Man, never man suffered in this way. As God is an infinitely justGod, the intensity of His suffering had to be commensurate with the cumulativesuffering which all the elect owe on account of sin.

Conclusion

Dearly beloved, words cannot fully describe how much Christsuffered in His life and death. As I began to write this article, I had agnawing fear that I would not even have painted sufficiently any of the horrorsthat Christ experienced. As I end this article, I know my fears are founded.But it is my prayer that we will at least be made aware that Christ did notjust suffer pain such as would be experienced by a martyr. No, He suffered muchmore. And He suffered for our sakes! May God grant us that our lives will befilled with gratitude and genuinely manifest a deep love towards the Lord JesusChrist for all that He underwent and undertook for us. Amen.